Gorilla Dawn

n
w
a
D
a
l
l
i
r
Go
GILL LEWIS
Notes and activity ideas for teachers and reading groups Years 5+
ABOUT THE BOOK
Deep in the heart of the African jungle, a baby gorilla is captured
by a group of rebel soldiers. Imara and Bobo are two children also
imprisoned in the rebels’ camp. When they learn that the gorilla is
destined to be sold into captivity, they swear to return it to the wild
before it’s too late. But the consequences of getting caught are too
terrible to think about. Will the bond between the gorilla and the
children give them the courage they need to escape?
Set in the Democratic Republic of Congo, this absorbing and
inspirational story by Gill Lewis not only tells of the fate of the
gorilla but is also about the country’s forests and resources, and
the struggles of the people who live there.
For young people aged 10+, it movingly raises awareness of the
threats to the forests and their inhabitants-and to the world’s
survival.
ABOUT GILL LEWIS
Before she could walk, Gill Lewis was discovered force-feeding bread
to a sick hedgehog under the rose bushes. Now her stories reflect her
passion for wild animals in wild places. She draws inspiration from many
of the people she has had the fortune to meet during her work as a
vet, both at home and abroad. Gill has a Masters degree in Writing for
Young People from Bath Spa University and won the 2009 course prize
for most promising writer. Her first novel was snapped up for publication within hours of being offered to
publishers.
Gill’s books have become hugely popular with adults and children alike, and have been nominated
for over fifty awards, including the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the Red House Children’s Book
Award, and the CILIP Carnegie Medal. She has also received outstanding critical acclaim, with The
Telegraph calling her ‘the principle contemporary writer of animal stories’.
For more about Gill have a look at her website www.gilllewis.com
www.oxfordchildrens.co.uk
www.gilllewis.com
Gorilla Dawn cover artwork © David Wyatt
She lives in Somerset with her young family and a motley crew of pets. She writes from a shed in the
garden, in the company of spiders.
FOR TEACHERS AND READING GROUPS
Here are ideas for children’s discussion and activities, including research,
creative writing, art, and further reading.
THINKING AND TALKING ABOUT THE BOOK
Introducing the book
• Look at the cover and the blurb, and set the scene.
• Spend time on the introduction at the very beginning of the book, about the forests in the east of
the Democratic Republic of Congo, home to the eastern lowland gorilla. These forests are where this
story begins….
• You might want also to look at a map of the world, highlighting Africa, and the location of the
Democratic Republic of Congo, and explaining that this is a country with unsettled government and
rebel fighting.
Gorilla Dawn cover artwork © David Wyatt
Read the first chapter of the book aloud and pick up on any questions, then encourage your group to
read the book all the way through themselves.
www.oxfordchildrens.co.uk
www.gilllewis.com
Talking about the book: some book-talk questions
Get everyone to share their first responses to this book. This could be with the whole class/group – or
children could discuss in small groups, and then share their main feelings and questions with everyone.
Ask lots of open questions to get people talking and encourage discussion about feelings and
responses to the story, the characters, and the writing.
Explain that there are no right or wrong answers – we’ll all have our own feelings and thoughts about
the book, and the things we like, or don’t like.
Here are some questions you might use.
• How did you feel when reading the book? And when you’d finished it?
• Which parts of the story do you remember most?
• Did you skip any parts? Which ones?
• Were there any parts you didn’t make sense of?
• Was there anything that took you by surprise?
• Did you stop and start, or did you want to read it all through in one go?
• Are there parts you want to read over again?
• Who was your favourite character in the book? Why? And your least favourite?
• What was the thing you most liked finding out from the book?
• What kind of a book did you think it was going to be?
• What would you say about this book if you were telling someone what you’ve just read?
• Does the story work for you? Could you follow it? What does the book say to you?
• At the end of the story did you feel as if you’d been there in the story too?
• Has reading the book changed or affected you? Has it made you think differently about
www.oxfordchildrens.co.uk
Gorilla Dawn cover artwork © David Wyatt
anything? Has it made you decide to do anything differently now?
www.gilllewis.com
GORILLA DAWN WORDSEARCH
Can you find all these people, places, and things from the story?
Look for them in the squares below - across, down, up, and from right to left.
The answers are at the end of this pack.
Talk about each and how they fit in the story.
BLACK MAMBA
FOREST
COLTAN MINE
REBELS
Q
G
O
R
I
L
L
A
S
J
P
B
Q
W
Z
B
W T
G Z
V X
C A
A B
W M
G A
U M
V K
Q C
W A
Z L
X B
B T
P D
Z U
GORILLAS
KITWANA
NATIONAL PARK
U
X
L
B
D
E
C
A
Z
G
F
X
O
X
X
S
J E N I M N
V N M B C Z
O K I T W A
M B W X V G
G X F Q N X
Q V W R A I
H W F S T C
N G O V I M
X B W Q O Z
M S N F N B
D X F S A X
Z P Q S L E
B O N L P V
U O L J A X
G T S E R O
X B M K K F
CONGO
BAMBOO
BOBO
A
A
N
D
Q
P
F
A
U
J
T
B
D
S
F
D
www.oxfordchildrens.co.uk
T L O
S X F
A X B
G F C
V G B
F W B
B X Y
R A F
J B C
U X S
Z P Q
E R Z
M Q P
V C G
G F V
R W V
MANG
C G
O Z
N V
G M
O B
V U
X B
Q V
X C
Z M
O Z
O A
B W
M Q
A R
B Y
www.gilllewis.com
Gorilla Dawn cover artwork © David Wyatt
IMARA
GORILLA DAWN CROSSWORD
5
1
7
9
13
18
16
15
8
14
17
2
10
3
11
6
12
4
ACROSS
DOWN
3.The young black-back gorilla in this story is
called .... (4)
5. What is Africa’s deadliest snake? (5,5)
7. What are the ‘fire-sticks’ which the rebels
carry? (4)
8. Coltan is a mineral used in making ......... (9)
11. What kind of stinging leaves do gorillas
like to eat? (7)
13. What is Bobo’s father’s job? (6)
14. What does Bobo use to prove his father’s
innocence? (6)
16. A l.... is a trailing or climbing woody vine
(5)
17. What kind of powder does Imara feed the
gorilla with? (4)
18. ‘Gorilla Dawn’ is set in the Democratic
Republic of ..... (5)
1. What is the name of the knife the rebels
use? (5)
2. What is Imara’s favourite fruit? (5)
4. The White ....... wants to own the gorilla (7)
5. You grind the cassava root to make flour for
..... (5)
6. The rebels believe Imara is a ...... Child (6)
8. What do the rebels make by burning wood
in a kiln? (8)
9. What kind of snake bite do you get when it
injects no venom? (3)
10. What is Frog’s real name? (8)
12. What does Imara’s mother say has been
trapped inside Imara? (4)
15. What is Imara’s brother’s name? (7)
www.oxfordchildrens.co.uk
www.gilllewis.com
Gorilla Dawn cover artwork © David Wyatt
WAYS OF TELLING A STORY
Using different typefaces
The author Gill Lewis uses three different typefaces in this book for the different voices which tell the
story. These are:
Normal typeface – for the main narrative
Italics - for the young gorilla Kitwana, and the things he thinks and sees
C A PI TA L L ET T E R S I N A H A N DW R I T I N G S T Y L E
– for the ‘demon’ inside Imara’s head
Talk about this use of typefaces – do people find it works for them? Does it help in connecting with
these different voices and imagining the characters?
Using similes
Gill Lewis often uses similes, which is a way of making vivid descriptions by comparing things. Here are
some examples:
• From up on the platform they (the miners) looked like ants: working, working, working. (p191)
• Imara looked down at the tiny white flower in her palm. It seemed to glow bright in the moonlight; its
fragile petals were pointed like a star. (p194)
• She felt as if she had more power than she had ever had before. She felt it surge, like a warming
ray of sunshine, from her chest, down her arms and through her fingers, spinning a shield around
Kitwana… (p208)
Have a go at completing these similes, thinking up your own comparisons:
The scraps of paper fluttered in the wind like…
Gorilla Dawn cover artwork © David Wyatt
The bright sun was like…
She felt fear run through her like…
www.oxfordchildrens.co.uk
www.gilllewis.com
First lines…and chapter endings
The opening sentences of a book are really important – they catch our attention and get us wanting to
read more.
Talk about the first lines of Gorilla Dawn:
IT IS TIME, IMARA.
Imara left the shadows and stepped into the pool of moonlight, listening to the demon as he paced
inside her mind.
IT IS TIME, IMARA. THE MEN ARE WAITING FOR YOU. THEY ARE WAITING FOR YOUR POWER TO
PROTECT THEM.
What do these lines get you thinking? How do they work for you? What questions are in your mind
about the story?
Look at the chapter endings in this book – do some of them leave you in suspense, wondering what
will happen? – or maybe fearful, wondering how things can work out in the next chapter? Look for
some examples of chapter endings giving this feeling.
Pictures ‘painted’ with words
In Gorilla Dawn there are lots of pictures in words, describing the forest, and the villages –here is one of
the storm which delays the helicopter:
As well as a picture in the mind, this could inspire a real painting or drawing – or people could create a
storm picture in their own words.
Have a look at Gill’s Writing Tips on her website at www.gilllewis.com.
www.oxfordchildrens.co.uk
www.gilllewis.com
Gorilla Dawn cover artwork © David Wyatt
She walked …across the cleared ground, the wide puddles, sticky and red with mud. The clouds had
sunk lower, pressing down on the camp. It was late afternoon, but the sky was dark. It glowed with deep
violet light. The air was charged with electricity and the promise of a storm. (p240)
THINGS TO TALK ABOUT
Here are some excerpts from the story to think about and discuss.
Secrets
No one else saw the boys’ friendship, only Imara. Friendship was forbidden in camp. It was a dangerous
secret to have. Imara smiled inwardly. To know someone’s secret was to hold them in your power. (p74)
How might you hold someone in your power through a secret? And why do you think friendship was
forbidden in the camp?
Letting go
Kitwana is with his family where he belongs.
And I feel no sorrow, and no sadness, only joy.
Pure joy.
I turn to look at Bobo, but for the first time, I see his face is wet with tears. (p315)
Imara has had to release Kitwana to the forest and his family, although she didn’t want to let him go.
Why do you think Imara now feels joy? And why is Bobo crying?
Superstitions
I was bitten by a black mamba and survived. The Black Mamba says powerful spirits protect me. (p146)
Last night I saw an owl, he said… An owl. It is a bad sign. A bad omen. (p203)
Talk about any superstitions you know around birds or animals.
What if…?
Good luck or bad luck?!
A bird poops on your head
a) You see one magpie…
b) You see two magpies!
Do you know the magpie rhyme?
You kill a spider
The ravens leave the Tower of London
A blackbird nests on your house
You see a black cat
You see a ladybird
…and what rhyme should you recite?!
www.oxfordchildrens.co.uk
www.gilllewis.com
Gorilla Dawn cover artwork © David Wyatt
a) You hear a cuckoo to your left …
b) You hear a cuckoo to your right
BE A RESEARCHER 1
What can you find out about the things below? Look them up in books or online, ask people, or
see if you can work out the meaning from the story.
Subject
What could you do to try to
Your research findings
survive the bite of the black
mamba snake!
‘I am Batwa…I belong to the
forest.’ (p124)
Saka is from the Batwa tribe find out more about this
group of people
Kadogo! Child soldiers. Killers.
They feared nothing and followed
their leaders to the death. (p37)
Find out more about kadogo,
child soldiers. (See website link
at the end of the pack)
The news of the Black Mamba’s
coltan mine spread like wind across
the forest, reaching the villages and
the refugee camps where people
lived, displaced by war. (p71)
Gorilla Dawn cover artwork © David Wyatt
What is coltan and what is its
full name?
What is it used for?
How is it mined?
www.oxfordchildrens.co.uk
www.gilllewis.com
BE A RESEARCHER 2: GORILLAS
Find out more about gorillas! Use books, encyclopaedias, the web and your school and local
libraries, and also the information within Gorilla Dawn.
You could also write to wildlife organisations – see the web links at the end of this pack.
Your research findings
Gorillas’ DNA is highly similar
to that of humans – are they 90% or 98%
similar?
How tall are adult male gorillas?
1.8 metres or 3 metres?
What are adult male gorillas called and
why?
(Clue: see Hodari in Gorilla Dawn)
What kind of gorillas are in Gorilla
Dawn? Eastern lowland gorillas or
mountain gorillas?
What do gorillas like to eat?
(See pp86-91 of Gorilla Dawn as well as
researching).
How do they eat nettles?!
What kind of things can gorillas do?
www.oxfordchildrens.co.uk
Gorilla Dawn cover artwork © David Wyatt
How many babies does a female gorilla
usually have in her lifetime?
How does the senior adult male gorilla
look after his group?
How long do young gorillas stay with
their mother?
What is the usual life-span for a gorilla?
What threats are there to gorillas’
survival?
www.gilllewis.com
GORILLA DAWN: THE CHARACTERS IN THE STORY
(Answers at the end of the pack)
Have a look at the excerpts below describing people and gorillas in Gorilla Dawn. Match each
description with one of these names.
SAKA BLACK MAMBA FROG BOBO IMARA
WHITE LIONESS DIKEMBE BUNDI KITWANA
HERI HISANI HODARI ENZI RAT
www.oxfordchildrens.co.uk
Character Name
www.gilllewis.com
Gorilla Dawn cover artwork © David Wyatt
Description
Main characters
Her face was pale, the colour of blood-tinged milk, and her skin looked pinched
and lacked the smoothness of youth.
The boy was tall but didn’t look sixteen. His clothes were muddied and stained
with sweat but they weren’t worn and threadbare like the other children’s
clothes. He wore shoes too.
She began to smear the ash paste, covering the raised scar that cut her face in
two.
Young captives
The first boy was tall and gangly, with wide, staring eyes...His cheeks sucked in
and out.
The second boy was shorter, about Imara’s height. He had sharp, quick eyes.
This one is a Batwa. A pygmy. He was small and skinny…At first she had
thought he was a young child, but his face was that of an older boy.
Rebels
He was tall and thin, with lighter skin, high cheekbones and a long nose on
which perched a pair of glasses…He was a man of books.
A wiry man with strands of hair braided like rats’ tails slunk out of the forest to
stand beside him.
He was a big man, thick-necked, like a bull buffalo…A smile broke across his
face, his gold tooth glinting in the light from Bundi’s torch
Gorillas
Oldest female gorilla, mother of young gorilla
Silverback and leader of the group
Young black-back gorilla
Young gorilla – 18 months old
Female gorilla – expecting a baby
IMARA’S STORY
Right from the first page of Gorilla Dawn we are aware of the ‘demon’ inside Imara, all the time telling
her what to do.
When you have read this book and all of Imara’s story, look especially at page 2 and the words of the
demon in her mind.
What do you think is happening in Imara’s mind? What could this demon be?
Talk about this together – here are some excerpts from the book to give you some thoughts for your
discussion:
When the men were deep in sleep the devil inside her slumbered too. (p60)
She could feel the demon swell and grow, pushing outwards on her ribs, squeezing tears out from her
eyes. ‘Let it go,’ said Imara’s mother. ‘Just let it go.’ (p277)
It (the young gorilla) seemed to look beyond her scar and beyond the demon, to some forgotten place
inside, a place somewhere just beyond her memory. (p116)
She became aware of some deep power between her and the gorilla that held them (the rebel men),
watching, as if it stirred some deep forgotten part of them too. (p117)
What could this ‘deep forgotten part’ be about?
When Imara escapes from the rebels, and is eventually reunited with her parents, what does she still
have to sort out and deal with in her mind?
Share together your thoughts and ideas and look again at pages 278 and 287.
As Imara’s story is told we gradually work out what has happened to her – and she herself remembers it
all in the last part of the book.
Make a list of her main actions and experiences and put them in the order in which they happened. You
could then use this template to set out your storyboard with pictures and words.
www.oxfordchildrens.co.uk
www.gilllewis.com
Gorilla Dawn cover artwork © David Wyatt
Create a storyboard of Imara’s life
STORYBOARD TEMPLATE: IMARA’S STORY
Gorilla Dawn cover artwork © David Wyatt
Name ..................................................
www.oxfordchildrens.co.uk
www.gilllewis.com
VILLAGE AND TOWN LIFE IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
OF CONGO
A day in the life
In Gorilla Dawn there are descriptions of life in the town, the villages, and the coltan mine. Have a look
at
• p6, beginning: Imara forced her eyes open and stared down to the village in the valley below.
• p48: Bobo saw his father standing at the end of the street beside the market
• p125: Every day more men arrived to dig the ground, burrowing deep trenches in search of the
grey rock they hoped would make them rich.
• p245: Saka awoke and stared wide-eyed at the beginnings of the town, criss-crossed with
electricity wires
• p280: I have returned to the village where I was once a child
Think of all the threats and insecurities in people’s lives in the Congo, as described in Gorilla Dawn: the
rebels and the fighting; refugees whose villages have been destroyed; corrupt people like the police
chief in this story; people not making enough from the land and having to work in the mines, where
money can be earned but at a cost.
Imagine you are living in one of these villages, on the town, or working in a mine. Write a description
of your day – what you see and do, the people you are with, what you are thinking about, the things
that happen.
Look at page 107 where Bobo is getting ready to leave and is looking round his room: This was the
bed where Papa had sat beside him at bedtime, telling him stories of the animals in the park and the
people who lived around it. This was where Mama had stroked his head with a cool cloth whenever he
had a fever. But now the bed was stripped bare of sheets and blankets and the small cupboard where he
stored his clothes was empty.
What if you had to leave your home, not knowing where you might be going or what would happen
to you? Think of your bedroom and imagine you are packing to leave. Write about your room with its
memories, and how you would feel about leaving it all.
www.oxfordchildrens.co.uk
www.gilllewis.com
Gorilla Dawn cover artwork © David Wyatt
Leaving home
Bobo’s family have to leave their home –because people believe that Bobo’s father has gone over to
the rebels, bringing shame to the community.
DESIGN A BOOK JACKET
Have a look at the front and back covers of Gorilla Dawn and pick out all these things:
• The title and name of the author
• The name of the publisher
• The design or picture on the front cover
• A brief summary of the story – the ‘blurb’
• A quote from someone who has read and reviewed the book – and liked it!
Talk about each and why it’s useful to have them all on the covers.
Then have a go at creating your own book jacket.
Either
Create a jacket for Gorilla Dawn, including everything in the list above – with a new design and
cover picture; and with a new ‘blurb’ and quote.
Write your own summary of what the book is about, plus a quote saying what you yourself think of the
story, recommending it to other readers.
Or
Think of an idea for a different story about saving an animal or an environment.
Design your jacket to go with this new story, including a blurb and a review quote based on your
What animal or environment is your story about?
eg. a lion; local woodland
Where is your story set?
Who is/are the main characters in the story?
What is the danger or threat ?
What does the main character have to try to do to
beat the danger ?
N.B. For the ‘blurb’ you don’t have to tell the whole story – just hook people into reading the book!
www.oxfordchildrens.co.uk
www.gilllewis.com
Gorilla Dawn cover artwork © David Wyatt
story idea.
Here are some tips – things to think about for your cover picture and blurb!
‘GORILLA-SAFE’ MOBILE PHONES
‘When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe’
John Muir 1838-1914 (Quote at the start of Gorilla Dawn)
Read again the opening of this book, about the forests in the east of the Democratic Republic of
Congo: …they are at risk of being lost forever.
Think about this in the context of the quote above from the naturalist John Muir, and talk about how
one thing leads to another, and the smallest thing affects something else.
Together create a flow chart or spidergram showing how one thing can lead to another, using
information from the story of Gorilla Dawn – here are some thoughts to start you off:
• Start with the forest – it sustains the plants that feed the gorillas
• Beneath the forest is coltan, a valuable resource, for making mobile phones and computers
• To get to the coltan people cut down the forest
• Then there is no more food for the gorillas, and nowhere to live
• Money from mining coltan is used to buy guns and fund wars
• Villages and farms are destroyed
• Gorillas are killed for bushmeat
• Forests are disappearing
• We have mobile phones
www.oxfordchildrens.co.uk
Gorilla Dawn cover artwork © David Wyatt
• Gorillas are in danger of extinction
www.gilllewis.com
What can we do to try to stop this?
On a flipchart collect everyone’s ideas for how each of us might try to make a difference, however small,
so that the earth’s creatures and resources are looked after and used with more respect.
You could then create a poster showing all these ideas, and persuading people to take these ideas on
board. You could also use your spidergram for this.
Display it where as many people as possible can see it!
Here are just three ideas inspired by Gorilla Dawn:
1. The White Lioness refers to coltan being certified as ‘conflict-free’ (p85). It’s been suggested that this
could then lead to ‘Gorilla Safe’ mobile phones, made with ‘conflict-free’ coltan, being marketed in
the same way as tuna meat can be sold as ‘Dolphin Safe’.
2. Simply recycling your old phone could help in saving gorillas: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/
news/2006/01/0120_060120_cellphones.html
3. Bobo’s friend Lamu makes his footballs from plastic bags, tied with string (p53) – here are
instructions to make these footballs: http://www.sendacow.org.uk/lessonsfromafrica/resources/
plastic-bag-football
At the very end of Gorilla Dawn Bobo repeats the words of his father:
Gorilla Dawn cover artwork © David Wyatt
With every dawn I ask myself: Who am I? What is my part in this?
How am I going to use this day to make the next one a better world?
www.oxfordchildrens.co.uk
www.gilllewis.com
MORE READING
AUTHOR
TITLE
PUBLISHER
ISBN
Moon Bear
OUP
978-0192793546
Scarlet Ibis
OUP
978-0192793560
Sky Hawk
OUP
978-0192756244
White Dolphin
OUP
978-0192756213
Puppy Academy: Scout and the Sausage Thief
(new series for younger readers)
OUP
978-0192739209
Rachel Campbell-Johnston
The Child’s Elephant
Corgi
978-0552571142
Gillian Cross
Shadow Cat
OUP
978-0192736734
Hilary McKay
Binny for Short
Hodder
978-1444915433
Michael Morpurgo
The Butterfly Lion
HarperCollins
978-0006751038
Lauren St John
The White Giraffe
Orion
978-1842555637
Piers Torday
The Last Wild
Quercus
978-1780878300
Anthony Browne
Gorilla (Fiction: picture book)
Walker
978-1406352337
Robin. S. Doak
Diane Fossey: Friend to Africa’s Gorillas
(Women in Conservation)
Heinemann
978-1484604731
Vicky Franchino
Gorillas (Nature’s Children)
Scholastic
978-0531243039
Craig, Juliana & Isabella Hatkoff
Looking for Miza: the True Story of the Mountain Gorilla
Family who Rescued One of Their Own
Scholastic
978-0545085403
Michael Nichols
Face to Face with Gorillas
National
Geographic
978-1426304064
Richard Sobol & Laszlo Kubinyi
Breakfast in the Rainforest: a Visit with Mountain Gorillas
Candlewick
978-0763622817
Seymour Simon
Gorillas
HarperCollins
978-0060891015
Sally Grindley
Bitter Chocolate (Fiction)
Bloomsbury
978-0747595021
Anthony Robinson
Gervelie’s Journey: A Refugee Diary
Frances Lincoln 978-1847800046
Lucy Beckett-Bowman
Rainforest
Usborne
978-0746090077
Peter Benoit
Tropical Rain Forests
Scholastic
978-0531281031
Paul Mason
Forests Under Threat
Heinemann
978-1432922955
More books by Gill Lewis
Stories about...
Animals at risk
Gorillas
West Africa
Gorilla Dawn cover artwork © David Wyatt
Forests
www.oxfordchildrens.co.uk
www.gilllewis.com
WORDSEARCH ANSWERS
Q
W
T
U
J
E
N
I
M
N
A
T
L
O
C
G
G
G
Z
X
V
N
M
B
C
Z
A
S
X
F
O
Z
O
V
X
L
O
K
I
T
W
A
N
A
X
B
N
V
R
C
A
B
M
B
W
X
V
G
D
G
F
C
G
M
I
A
B
D
G
X
F
Q
N
X
Q
V
G
B
O
B
L
W
M
E
Q
V
W
R
A
I
P
F
W
B
V
U
L
G
A
C
H
W
F
S
T
C
F
B
X
Y
X
B
A
U
M
A
N
G
O
V
I
M
A
R
A
F
Q
V
S
V
K
Z
X
B
W
Q
O
Z
U
J
B
C
X
C
J
Q
C
G
M
S
N
F
N
B
J
U
X
S
Z
M
P
W
A
F
D
X
F
S
A
X
T
Z
P
Q
O
Z
B
Z
L
X
Z
P
Q
S
L
E
B
E
R
Z
O
A
Q
X
B
O
B
O
N
L
P
V
D
M
Q
P
B
W
W
B
T
X
U
O
L
J
A
X
S
V
C
G
M
Q
Z
P
D
X
G
T
S
E
R
O
F
G
F
V
A
R
B
Z
U
S
X
B
M
K
K
F
D
R
W
V
B
Y
CROSSWORD ANSWERS
ACROSS
DOWN
3. The young black-back gorilla in this story is called .... (4)
1. What is the name of the knife the rebels use? (5) PAN-
ENZI
GA
5. What is Africa’s deadliest snake? (5,5)
2. What is Imara’s favourite fruit? (5)
BLACK MAMBA
MANGO
8. Coltan is a mineral used in making ......... (9)
GUNS
COMPUTERS
4. The White ....... wants to own the gorilla (7) LIONESS
5. You grind the cassava root to make flour for ..... (5)
11. What kind of stinging leaves do gorillas like to eat? (7)
BREAD
NETTLES
6. The rebels believe Imara is a ...... Child (6) SPIRIT
13. What is Bobo’s father’s job? (6)
8. What do the rebels make by burning wood in a kiln? (8)
RANGER
CHARCOAL
14. What does Bobo use to prove his father’s innocence? (6)
9. What kind of snake bite do you get when it injects no
CAMERA
venom? (3) DRY
16. A l.... is a trailing or climbing woody vine (5) LIANA
10. What is Frog’s real name? (8)
17. What kind of powder does Imara feed the gorilla with? (4)
EMMANUEL
MILK
12. What does Imara’s mother say has been trapped in-
18. ‘Gorilla Dawn’ is set in the Democratic Republic of ..... (5)
side Imara? (4) LOVE
CONGO
15. What is Imara’s brother’s name? (7)
KITWANA
www.oxfordchildrens.co.uk
www.gilllewis.com
Gorilla Dawn cover artwork © David Wyatt
7. What are the ‘fire-sticks’ which the rebels carry? (4)
THE CHARACTERS IN THE STORY – ANSWERS
Description
Main characters
Her face was pale, the colour of blood-tinged milk, and her
skin looked pinched and lacked the smoothness of youth.
The boy was tall but didn’t look sixteen. His clothes were muddied and
stained with sweat but they weren’t worn and threadbare like the other
children’s clothes. He wore shoes too.
She began to smear the ash paste, covering the raised scar that cut her
face in two.
Young captives
The first boy was tall and gangly, with wide, staring eyes... His cheeks
sucked in and out.
The second boy was shorter, about Imara’s height. He had sharp, quick
eyes.
This one is a Batwa. A pygmy. He was small and skinny…At first she had
thought he was a young child, but his face was that of an older boy.
Rebels
He was tall and thin, with lighter skin, high cheekbones and a long nose on
which perched a pair of glasses…He was a man of books.
A wiry man with strands of hair braided like rats’ tails slunk out of the forest
to stand beside him.
He was a big man, thick-necked, like a bull buffalo… A smile broke across
his face, his gold tooth glinting in the light from Bundi’s torch
Gorillas
Oldest female gorilla, mother of young gorilla
Silverback and leader of the group
Young black-back gorilla
Young gorilla – 18 months old
Female gorilla – expecting a baby
www.oxfordchildrens.co.uk
WHITE LIONESS
BOBO
IMARA
FROG
DIKEMBE
SAKA
BUNDI
RAT
BLACK MAMBA
HISANI
HODARI
ENZI
KITWANA
HERI
www.gilllewis.com
Gorilla Dawn cover artwork © David Wyatt